The Union of Professional Educators today delivered a ‘pudina’ to Permanent Secretary Frank Fabri Fabri as a “gesture to help him realise that his latest manoeuvre is unwarranted in the eyes of the union and of many prospective student-teachers”. 

The tongue-in-cheek idea came “following our 14 October win in the court case/saga of the peripatetic teachers”, with the Permanent Secretary not giving up “trying to find various ways to undermine the union's directives”, the union said in a statement. 

Pudina is a Maltese traditional cake, with the word also used in the vernacular as a way to describe as a mistake.

Last month, a court rejected government's effort to muzzle two teachers’ unions, turning down an application for a warrant of prohibitory injunction that would stop industrial action by educators.

The UPE said today that in the latest twist to the story, the Ministry called on students to fill the gaping holes in the education sector by assigning them to schools different from those they had been told some weeks previously.

“Those student-teachers were understandably upset since, true to form, the Ministry decided to inform them just a few days before the commencement of their teaching placement,” the UPE said.

The union said it contacted these students and explain to them the way forward. “We will remain in contact with them to assist them whenever the need arises,” the union added.